


Blood in the Water

by newsies_of_corona



Series: Alchemy Enemies [1]
Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Villain Varian, factory settings hugo, they're both awful people at this point
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-14 13:28:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29419422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/newsies_of_corona/pseuds/newsies_of_corona
Summary: Varian has just been captured and put in jail for his crimes against Corona and he’s decided to work with Andrew and the Saporians. Unfortunately, the arrangement comes with a setback, Hugo. (Factory!Settings Hugo to ramp up the angst; trademark to the Hugo admin from the 7K roleplay)Hugo was put in jail after some petty thievery about a month before Varian came. He knows about Andrew’s plan already and wants to do anything to impress him.
Relationships: it's not alchemy bros or varigo-they just hate eachother
Series: Alchemy Enemies [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2161200
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	Blood in the Water

Hugo strolls down the hallway of the Saporian hideout with a confident air, trying hard to conceal the smile on his face. There are only a few things that can genuinely make Hugo happy in this job, and most of them regard the twerp he’s being forced to work with, Varian.

The kid tries so hard to be confident and tough, but Hugo quickly sees through it. In his heart of hearts, Varian’s unstable, and that instability is what Hugo loves to use the most. Making Varian feel inferior or just seeing him weak; it makes his day. That’s why on this sunshiny Corona morning, Hugo is thrilled to tell Varian the news he just received from Andrew. News that will most definitely give him some entertainment. Once the blond reaches Varian’s door, he raps hard with the knocker and waits for him to open it.

Varian’s in his typical mood, solemn and detached from most things...except alchemy. His work still keeps him going even though everything has been ripped out of his fingers. He’s been working with the Saporians for about 3 months now. As soon as the break out took place, the group had neutralized all the guards and bunkered down in the basement of the castle as a hideout. They had divided up the rooms by ‘rank.’ The biggest went to Andrew, the second biggest went to Hugo, and Varian got a small leftover storage room. It’s barely big enough to fit all of his equipment, so Hugo helped him out a bit..by stealing most of it. 

On top of his job with the Saporians, Varian had been plotting a way to get Hugo out of his life once and for all. The two had basically become nemeses as soon as they first saw each other, always looking for the next big way to take the other down a peg. Hugo seems to enjoy it, but Varian, however, is sick of the routine and wants his bully permanently gone. His latest experiment is centered around just that and he’s been working on it for weeks. An alchemy ball that would make all his troubles disappear. The process has been tricky so far, but he’s dangerously close to finishing. 

As he pipes a purplish solution into a pink-colored sphere, he thinks about the plans he can achieve once Hugo is actually out of his life. It would be freeing and relieving to not have someone breathing down his neck 24/7. A bit of guilt starts to seep in when Varian realizes what this is actually implying, but it’s silenced by a loud knocking at door. 

_ Knock, knock, knock. _

Varian slowly lowers his unfinished compound and glances behind him.

“That better not be who I think it is.”

Varian decides to continue working and not answer it, but that didn’t stop the perpetual sound of the knocker on the door.

_ Knock, knock, KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK- _

The alchemist knows he definitely can’t focus in these conditions, but he also knows for a fact that the obnoxious knocker is Hugo. And there is  _ no _ way that Varian is letting him in. At least not until his project is finished and perfectly set up. The alchemist tries to ignore the sound and returns to the weapon in-progress, even though every rap on the door makes him flinch.

On the other side of the door, Hugo can simply get in with a lock pick, he has quite a bounty of them. But aggravating Varian to no end is more interesting. He’ll break eventually and have to let him in.

The knocking on the door gets more fierce and  _ loud _ , basically drowning out any other thought Varian has. The alchemist kneels down to the ground so he can get a better look at what he’s doing, straining to pipe the last drop he needs into the sphere. 

“Al...most...”

Outside the room, Hugo finally decides enough is enough. He’s been knocking for ten minutes, his arm is getting tired, and busting into Varian’s room will still have the same effect if not a better one. He reaches into a pouch strapped to his leg and pulls out a lock pick.

The knocking stops long enough for Varian to get what he needs, but he soon hears the mechanism of his lock turning. He’s too far away to try and prevent Hugo from coming in, and also too occupied with his alchemy ball. He lost this round.

The pick glides through every locking mechanism Varian has on his door. Hugo actually updated it specifically for Varian’s room since it’s normally hard to break into. He kicks open the door roughly and sees Varian kneeling in the corner, working on something.

Hugo’s unwelcome entrance startles Varian, and the compound drops to the floor and breaks. As his project shatters, so does the last of his sanity. He gets up from his kneeling position, glowing with rage, and turns around to Hugo who smugly walks over to him. He notes the broken alchemy ball with a smirk and kicks it to the side.

“I hope I wasn’t  _ interrupting _ anything.”

Varian glares up at him, his fist clenching and his entire body stiffening in anger.

“Did you know...That-that every time you bust in here you get higher and  _ higher _ on my hit-list?”

Hugo notes Varian’s posture with a chuckle. He hasn’t been here for two minutes and the kid’s already losing his mind! This day just keeps getting better.

“Ah, right. That ‘hit-list’ that doesn’t actually manage to kill anyone. Sounds like a pretty safe place to me!”

Varian’s glare deepens and he forces out some strained words.

“ _ Why are you here? _ ”

Hugo snaps his fingers in ‘realization.’

“Oh! That’s right! The boss wants you. Told me to come get you.”

Without any real reason except for his own enjoyment, Hugo slaps down the goggles on Varian’s face with a cold laugh.

The alchemist props them back on his head and kicks Hugo in the shin, making him yelp, but he quickly recovers.

“S’weird I know. I can’t really imagine anyone  _ wanting _ you around.” He bitterly gestures to his shin. “Especially when you do stuff like  _ that.” _

Varian’s frown is finally replaced with a cold grin and he leans against the edge of his desk.

“You deserved it. I’m actually thinking of adding some steel tips to my boots just for you.”

Hugo narrows his eyes and slaps down Varian’s goggles again, toying a bit with the strap.

“How thoughtful,  _ Hairstripe. _ But your fancy shoes can’t get rid of me that easy.”

Varian pushes Hugo away from him and fixes his goggles one last time, hoping his tormentor is done with that gag.

“Then what will? Because you’d be doing everyone a huge favor.”

Hugo rolls his eyes with another chuckle. How stupid was this kid? Obviously, the Saporians respect him and they’d probably be lost if he left...right?

“No, no, no, ha! You’ve got it all wrong! See,  _ you’re _ the problem. Everyone  _ loves _ me!”

Varian arches an eyebrow.

_ “Everyone?” _

Hugo pulls on Varian’s stripe roughly, making him jerk his head away.

“You’re a special case,  _ Hairstripe.  _ But maybe you could learn a thing or two from me. I mean, nobody likes a pathetic raincloud who needs to push his problems on every person he sees.”

Varian rolls his eyes and walks away from Hugo over to another desk.

“Yeah? Well, newsflash, buddy. Nobody likes a suck-up either, heh.”

Hugo follows him and corners him again once Varian reaches his desk.

“That’s such a crude word for it, really.”

Varian ducks under his arm and moves away, trying to ignore Hugo. Unfortunately for him, his nemesis’ voice was just as grating as the knocking.

Hugo sees Varian trying to get away and steps in front of him again.

“I respect authority. Find it keeps me out of trouble.” Hugo leans down to Varian’s level, taking on a sinister tone. “You’d know  _ all _ about that, wouldn’t ya?”

The alchemist tenses, but then spots a way to get Hugo back. He steals Hugo’s glasses right off his face and twirls them around by one of the bars.

“When ‘authority’ is wrong, that’s where I draw the line. I’m not gonna give up my beliefs just to go along with someone else’s plan.”

Varian leans closer to Hugo this time, still playing around with the glasses. “Cause like I said, I’m not a  _ suck-up. _ ”

Hugo’s vision goes blurry but he can still see the outline of his insufferable teammate. He blinks a few times and his back-up contacts kick in. He’s come prepared for situations like these, but it could be fun to exploit being ‘blind.’

“Hey! You can’t just-!”

Hugo pretends to reach for his glasses on the other side of Varian, knocking over several of his compounds in the process.

Varian panics as the glass hits the floor and sharply turns back to Hugo, gesturing to the glasses in his other hand.

“WHAT THE- They’re literally right here! Are you really  _ that _ blind?

Hugo tries to contain his laughter but lets a few snickers slip between the cracks.

“Wow...making fun of the disabled is really a great color on you.”

Varian scoffs and mutters under his breath, taking his focus off the glasses for a second. 

Hugo stops acting disoriented and stares Varian directly in the face.

“And no...I’m not that blind.”

He swipes his glasses back and puts them back on his face, blinking again to turn off the contacts.

Varian glances confusedly up at him, and then angrily back to his shattered supply of compounds.

“You did that on purpose! And why do you even  _ have _ glasses if you don’t need them?”

Hugo shushes him, still laughing at the fact that Varian didn’t figure it out.

“A magician never reveals his secrets.”

Varian simply kicks him again and starts cleaning up his mess. 

Hugo lets out a sharp cry of pain and rubs the injured area which happened to be the exact same spot Varian kicked him last time.

“Agh. There’s got to be  _ something _ to deflect that.” He says under his breath.

“But I’ll work on it later.  _ Hairstripe? _ ” He calls, “Don’t you want to know why Andrew sent me down?”

Varian bumps his head as he’s getting out from under the table and groans both from the pain and the fact that Hugo is  _ still there. _

“Will it get you off my back?”

“I make no promises.”

Varian rolls his eyes but decides he should probably know what Andrew wants. He nods to Hugo.

“Shoot.”

Hugo sighs in relief and flexes his fingers. Finally, the moment he’d been waiting for this whole time had come.

He shrugs and casually leans on the wall.

“Well...it wasn’t much.”

Hugo lowers his head a little to hide the sly smile forming. “Just wanted you to go back to Old Corona...”

Varian takes a sharp breath in and has to steady himself on a table.

“Ru-run that by me again?” He says, sincerely hoping that he heard Hugo wrong.

Hugo’s smirk broadens but he still tries to hide it. There’s that insecurity. Suddenly all of those kicks to the shin were totally worth it.

“Yeah, you just need to go back to your house and get some equipment. Like I said, no big deal.”

Varian feels blood rush to his head and his stomach practically drops to the floor. He can’t go back to  _ Old Corona!  _ Not after everything that had happened so recently!

“No big  _ deal?! _ I-“

His breathing becomes quicker and he feels a headache start to set in. It isn’t helping that  _ Hugo _ is the one to tell him this news.

The blond notices Varian’s distressed state and immediately uses it.

“Well, not to me...” He walks around Varian and stops directly next to him. “But it clearly is to  _ you _ ...”

Flashbacks flick through Varian’s mind. The amber, the destruction of the black rocks, his dad... _ Rapunzel. _

Varian’s silence is proof enough to Hugo that his plan is working. He just has to chip at him a little more. He gasps in faux realization.

“Ohhh! That’s where the whole thing happened with your dad, right?”

Varian turns away from him and lowly voices, “I don’t have to discuss that with you.”

Hugo moves a bit closer to Varian, making him noticeably uncomfortable.

“But you really  _ shouldn’t _ keep it all to yourself...”

Varian moves away from Hugo and tries to find something to defend himself with.

“You know enough. Get out of my room before I...I glue you to the ceiling!”

Hugo isn’t intimidated in the slightest and puts an arm around Varian’s shoulder in a mocking fashion.

“It’ll be pretty tough going there on your own. Wouldn’t you want some, I don’t know...moral support?”

Varian cringes in disgust and shoves Hugo’s arm off his shoulder.

“Not from you.”

He scrambles to find a goo trap on the table and holds it up defensively, but Hugo immediately lowers his hand.

“That’s not gonna do you much good, Varian. First of all, you can’t even get me up to the ceiling cause you’re about half my height and second even if you tried to stick me to the ground I have your antidote. Try again.”

The alchemist blinks in surprise before huffing and setting the alchemy ball aside. He grabs a backpack in the corner and starts filling it, figuring he’d have to go one way or another.

“You’re not coming with me,” he tells Hugo, deadpan.

The blond simply laughs and rests his arm on Varian’s bag.

“Watch me.”

——————-

As hard as Varian tries to get rid of Hugo, he follows him the whole way to Old Corona, making off-hand jokes and comments that Varian tries his best to ignore. One thing’s for sure, there’s no way that Hugo’s stepping one foot into his house...which was now directly in front of them. He stops in his tracks causing Hugo to bump into him.

“You can leave now.” He tells him lowly.

“Was that a  _ suggestion _ or a command?” Hugo asks, not caring about the answer.

Varian sharply turns around and jabs a finger at him.

“Hugo. Leave.  _ NOW. _ ”

Hugo throws up his hands and steps back.

“Ah. A command. Well, you see, I  _ would _ but there’s one small detail-“

“ _ What?”  _ Varian cuts him off, exasperated.

Hugo shakes his head with a sigh. “I don’t listen to you.” He briskly pushes past Varian and walks into the archway of black rocks.

“Hugo, I’m serious. You need to leave.” Varian tells him, becoming more desperate.

Hugo turns around and walks backward away from Varian and down the corridor of rocks.

“Oh I know you’re serious, I just don’t care.”

Hugo keeps trekking down the pathway, not stopping once or even slowing down. Varian follows along behind him, planning on cutting him off when they get to the house. They walk out of the tunnel and into the light, Varian’s entire house finally in view. Hugo takes a look around at the mutilated structure with a low whistle.

“Nice place you got here. Where’s the rest of it?”

Varian grumbles under his breath and sprints to the door, blocking it with his body and pulling the handle close.

Hugo arches an eyebrow when he sees what Varian’s doing and runs up to his door as well.

“You really think that’s gonna do anything?” He asks, coldly laughing.

“You can’t go in there,” Varian tells him, breathing heavily.

Hugo puts a hand on the door and looms over Varian, but the alchemist struggles to maintain his blockade.

“You’re making an awfully big deal out of this. It better be  _ horrific _ or I want my money back.”

He pushes lightly on the door and Varian tenses, pulling further on the knob to keep it closed. He looks up at Hugo with sorrow behind his eyes.

“ _ Please... _ ” He voices weakly, but this was the wrong thing to say.

Hugo covers his mouth and starts cracking up. He doesn’t have a compassionate bone in his body.

“Oh, this I  _ gotta _ see. If it’s enough to make you literally beg.”

He pushes harder on the door, still only using one hand.

Varian strains to keep it shut, but his body is growing tired.

_ “Stop.” _

For a moment, it seems like Varian’s pleading has some effect. Hugo’s hand slowly moves away from the door and he steps back.

“Well, alright _...” _

He grabs Varian by the shoulders and shoves him aside to get to the door.

“If you  _ insist _ .”

Varian falls to his knees and takes a couple of shallow breaths before getting back up again, but it’s too late. The door swings open and Hugo’s foot crosses the threshold.

“Now, let’s see what all the fuss is abou-“

Hugo cuts himself off as his eyes meet the amber, and for a split second, a genuine look of concern flashes on his face.

“Oh.”

But his worry slowly turns into a smile and then a small chuckle.

“Oh ho  _ ho! _ ”

He claps his hands slowly and cynically, eyes still fixed on Varian’s encased father.

_ “Now _ I get it. Boy, this is a showstopper!”

Varian leans against the door, still out of breath. His tone is dark and low and he can’t even make himself look up at the amber. 

“Hugo,  _ get out.“ _

His intruder takes a step closer to the amber, examining it from all sides and ignoring Varian’s warning.

“Maybe alchemy’s the wrong profession for ya, Hairstripe. You should be a  _ sculptor! _ Ha! I’m sure this would be your  _ magnum opus _ .”

He takes off his glasses to polish them before placing them back on his face to get a better look at the statue.

“I mean it’s dramatic, eye-catching... It really speaks to me in an ‘I’m so glad I’m not this guy’s son’ kind of way,” He ends off with a chuckle that makes Varian’s skin crawl.

The alchemist wills himself to look up and just the sight of the amber brings a darker feeling back into him. He walks into his lab, now dead set on finishing Hugo off  _ right there. _

The blond walks over to Quirin’s hand and squints at the paper he’s holding.

“Oh- and is that a note I see? And you can’t even read it? That must be torture!”

“ _ Enough, Hugo.” _

He continues to ignore Varian and knocks lightly on the amber.

“I guess this would be more like the  _ kid _ grounding the  _ parent. Ha!” _

He turns around to face Varian, sort of taken aback by the absolutely murderous look he was getting. But that doesn’t stop him from continuing to pour salt on Varian’s wounds.

“What did dear old dad do, anyway? Or were you just feeling artsy?”

Varian takes another step forward, both of his hands in tight fists.

“Hugo,  _ I swear-“ _

Hugo’s eyes flick over to the broken drill at the base of the amber and he gives it a small pat.

“Wow you really tried everything didn’t you, Varian? And it  _ still _ didn’t work? No wonder you didn’t want to come back here. That’s not just your dad in there,”

He lowers his voice almost to a whisper, staring the alchemist directly in the face.

“It’s also your biggest  _ failure.” _

Varian’s eyes widen and start to redden as Hugo’s words set in. He turns around to a lab table and grabs a random vial, which happens to be purple. He holds it up towards Hugo threateningly.

“ _ One more word and you’ll join him.” _

Hugo suddenly feels very unsafe, but quickly realizes that the amber couldn’t have come from the dull, purple solution in that vial. He snaps out of his haze with a shrug and continues to torment.

“Well okay.”

He dramatically throws an arm up in the air and looks upwards, trying to replicate Quirin’s pose.

“Just make sure you get my good side.”

Varian’s complexion turns a deeper shade of red and Hugo drops the pose, pointing out the vial.

“That’s not even the right compound is it?”

Varian’s eyebrows raise in surprise, knowing he’s been caught. He shoves the vial in his apron pocket and stutters, trying to recover. 

“I-I uh...”

Hugo takes some long steps around the lab, running his finger over various vials and beakers that had long been forgotten.

“I wonder which one it could be! If any. I mean you were probably too traumatized to even touch that stuff again, heh.”

He continues to search when he discovers Varian’s dusty plush dummy in the corner. Without context...it looked pretty strange. And the perfect target for more bullying.

“HA! What’s THIS?”

Hugo picks it up and waves it in front of Varian’s face.

“You really  _ are _ a softie!”

He maneuvers it in a sarcastic way, taking on a condescending tone.

“Were you feeling  _ lonely _ without daddy around?”

Varian walks backward toward his door and kicks it shut. He’d found the actual amber while Hugo was exploring, and he holds the eerie lime green vial up for him to see.

“You want to keep going? Or do  _ you _ want to be my  _ ‘magnum opus?’ _

Hugo jumps as the door shuts and drops the dummy on the ground. He can tell the glowing solution that Varian is holding now is definitely the same compound. He backs up further, unfortunately straight into a black rock. His breath gets caught in his throat but he tries not to let Varian see how scared he is.

“You actually made more of it?”

Varian most definitely can sense how nervous Hugo is. Good. He should be. He’s let this guy mess with him for far too long; it’ll be nice to finally give him what he deserves.

He waves the vial closer to Hugo.

“It’s a nice bargaining chip.”

He pops off the cork of the vial and closes in on his enemy.

“You think you’re so smart, so clever, ‘ _ everyone _ loves you…’”

Varian sharpens his glare and takes another step forward.

“But I bet not  _ one _ person back there would even notice you’re missing.”

This is not going as Hugo expected and he becomes more and more nervous. Varian could actually trap him. Right there. He tries to bring up an excuse to stop it, using the one person who he knows would care. Or at least, he  _ thinks _ he would.

“Andrew won’t be too happy if I’m gone.” He says, almost sadly.

Varian scoffs and grabs a rope on the ground. He has to make sure Hugo can’t try to run.

“Andrew doesn’t scare me. Plus he only needs one alchemist, anyway.”

Varian starts to tie the rope around Hugo’s arm, forgetting that Hugo had another arm...and also weapons.

At that moment, Hugo gets an evil idea that would definitely save him, and get him a couple more laughs. He discreetly reaches down to his belt and fingers the hilt of a weapon.

“Ah...maybe  _ he _ doesn’t scare you.”

He rips out a dagger pointed straight at the alchemist.

“But I know what  _ does...” _

Varian gasps when he sees the blade and quickly corks the vial, making Hugo laugh. Once again, he was in control.

He plays around with the dagger, spinning it in his hand.

“What was it again? Starts with a B,  _ extremely _ red...”

“Bl...” Varian starts. Even the thought of it gets him woozy...and Hugo knows that.

“Almost there-“

He starts to cut away the rope on his arm with the dagger when he ‘accidentally’ nicks his finger producing Varian’s biggest fear.

“Ouch! Gotta be careful where you point these things.”

He blatantly shows off his small injury to Varian and moves completely out of the way of the rock.

Varian starts to feel light-headed at the sight of it, and shuts his eyes, knowing what Hugo’s doing.

“No…I won’t-“

But as hard as he tries, he can’t get himself to stay awake. Hugo uninterestedly walks up to him, swipes the amber out of his apron pocket, and gives him a small push.

“3...2...1...”

“Bluhhh...” 

Varian drops to the floor right in front of Hugo as he pockets the new compound that Varian so  _ generously _ procured for him. 

“It’s pretty rude to leave in the middle of a house tour,  _ Hairstripe _ .”

He yawns, sheaths his dagger, and sucks the small bit of blood from his thumb.

“But you did bring up a good point on this  _ lovely _ little outing.”

He lightly kicks the unconscious Varian on the floor with a laugh and begins to raid the shelves of his lab after glancing back at Varian with a cold and unfeeling look.

“Andrew only needs  _ one _ of us...”

**Author's Note:**

> There's actually an alternate ending for this too...check it out!


End file.
